Fighter Pilot's Heaven: Flight Testing the Early Jets

Fighter Pilot's Heaven presents the dramatic inside story of the American
military's transition into the jet age, as told by a flyer whose life depended
on its success. With colorful anecdotes about fellow pilots as well as precise
technical information, Donald S. Lopez describes how it was to be “behind the
stick” as a test pilot from 1945 to 1950, when the U.S. military was shifting
from war to peacetime operations and from propeller to jet aircraft.

An ace pilot who had served with Gen. Claire Chennault's Flying Tiger Fighter
Group, Lopez was assigned at the close of World War II to the elite Proof Test
Group of the Air Proving Ground Command. Located at Eglin Field (later Eglin Air
Force Base) in Florida, the group determined the operational suitability of Air
Force weapons systems and aircraft and tested the first operational jet, the
P-80 Shooting Star. Jet fighters required new techniques, tactics, and weaponry.
Lopez recounts historic test flights in the P-59, P-80, and P-84, among other
planes, describing complex combat maneuvers, hair-raising landings in unusual
positions, and disastrous crashes and near crashes. This memoir is peppered with
lively accounts of many pilots and their colleagues, revealing how airmen coped
with both exhilarating successes and sometimes tragic failures.

Some
keywords that may help you find this product: Buy
Fighter Pilot's Heaven: Flight Testing the Early Jets AeroPhoenix 9781560989165 Donald S Lopez 9781560989165 Dramatic inside story of the American military's transition into the jet age, as told by a flyer whose life depended on its success.